Post navigation

knitted: yummy warm cardi (Vine Lace Cardigan)

We interrupt the look back at 2008 to show how I started 2009. A new cardigan! For me!

pattern: #77 Vine Lace Top-Down Cardigan from SweaterBabe.comyarn: Lamb’s Pride Bulky, in Pine Shadows (a heathered dark green, difficult to photograph), 6.5 skeins (roughly 800 yards)needles: size 11cast on: December 27bind-off: January 3modifications: didn’t add the pockets, didn’t increase the sleeves as much as the pattern called for. I followed the pattern for the first sleeve but found it so bulky and slouchy that I changed what I did for the second. Later I went back and redid the first sleeve.notes: This is my second SweaterBabe pattern (the first being the Fabulous Lace Inset Cardigan, my first ever cardi, made in September 2006) and I have to say that this pattern is much easier to follow than that one, partly because this one is a top-down seamless knit. (The other one was still a great pattern, but I don’t care for directions that essentially tell you to knit the right side the same as the left except in reverse – especially if that includes shaping plus lace.)
I love the lace panels on this!

I didn’t do a full wet-block on this sweater because I didn’t want to add any length or width at all, and was afraid with the bulky yarn plus the mohair that a wet-block mind end up stretching it too much. So I just pinned it out and did a spritz block, with some help:
I really only pinned out the waist and button band. In retrospect, I should’ve paid more attention to the collar, which obviously needs a little blocking. That’s the great thing about blocking, though – you can always go back and do more.

Which I will, once I can ever manage to take this baby off. Because the best thing about this sweater, aside from the fact that I think it is totally gorgeous, is that it is the warmest thing I’ve made.

Great color on you! Hey, what’s up with that cat? Is it really just one cat, or are there a couple underneath him(her?) ????? Is that your secret to blocking, cat-press?!? (laugh. you know it’s funny.)